Writing to Mark Grocholski, a Rhode Island resident who helps set up club football teams around the world, Galarza sought advice for his own start-up, Gattaca Football.

“Everything was all for the kids, he never said anything about making money,” Grocholski said last week.

Galarza’s plan seemed like it would benefit high school graduates and community college students who didn’t have the resources to play sports at the college level.

“It was all about taking kids that needed another opportunity beyond high school and getting their academics up and basically preparing them for a four-year college football program,” he said.

Through the spring, Galarza and Grocholski communicated by e-mail and phone, exchanging ideas. Galarza planned a program in Trenton with students attending Mercer County Community College.

Grocholski’s company, World Sports Scouting, obtains new and used sports equipment for teams, and Grocholski offered his help getting shoulder pads, helmets and jerseys. On Aug. 14, they met in Milford, Ct., where Grocholski presented Galarza with the equipment and Galarza handed over a check for $6,015.

Grocholski said he hasn’t seen a dime of that money, and Galarza over the last month has repeatedly promised to pay him, only to ask for a delay on account of insufficient funds. Grocholski thinks he was scammed.

He’s fed up with Galarza’s excuses, and he’s sent letters to the U.S. attorney for Rhode Island and the state’s attorney general, asking them to investigate the coach and Gattaca Football. He says he is hurting financially because of the unpaid equipment.

Galarza made headlines in Trenton last month when eight of his players were kicked out of their Mill Hill apartments after the electricity was turned off. He conceded Friday that he owes Grocholski money, but says he wasn’t able to pay because of a miscalculation of the team’s funds.

“The arrangement was clear, that we were going to pay him,” he said.
“I come back and look in the account, funds that were supposed to be in the account were not there,” he said.

In desperation, he said, he tried to call the parents of his players and beg them to chip in money to pay for the equipment.

“I got a zillion and one excuses and no results,” he said.

“I run a small business, I miscalculated, and I don’t have the money to pay him.”

Since receiving the 60 new practice jerseys, 55 pairs of shoulder pads, 33 helmets, more than 40 travel bags, 20 chin straps, nearly 200 face masks, various helmet parts, and several machines from Grocholski, Team Gattaca has played two scrimmages and one game at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

A “minidocumentary” video featuring interviews with players during a bus ride to the Milford Academy in New Berlin, N.Y., and the subsequent game is up on Gattaca’s website. An online roster lists 21 players.

But Gattaca Football’s checking account hasn’t held more than $300 in over 30 days, Galarza said, and his family is on food stamps.

That’s not how Galarza represented himself initially, Grocholski said.

“He said his stepfather was a lawyer and made a lot of money, and he said he made a lot of money with a computer company called Gattaca Incorporated,” Grocholski said.

“He said he had a lot of investments and he did very well for himself at an early age,” he said. “I tend to trust people, I like to believe in people,” Grocholski said.

Players for Gattaca must front their own room and board, as well as tuition to the college they are supposed to be attending. They also pay a fee to the football club.

Galarza has said he waived fees for most of his players, receiving payment from only a handful of the boys’ parents.

“I’m not in this to make money,” he said. “If I wanted to make money, I’d get a job and work 9 to 5.”

“I want to help these kids,” he said. “That’s my high, from helping these kids.”

Gattaca Football’s players, most aged between 18 and 20, live in rental homes throughout Trenton. Four players returned from a game at Milford Academy in late August to find the electricity in their Mercer Street apartment had been shut off.

After they moved across the street with four other players, the overcrowding caught the attention of city inspectors.

The electricity inside the second apartment was ultimately shut off days later, and the players moved into a building owned by a mayoral aide.

Tom Molnar, the landlord of the Mill Hill properties, says Galarza still owes him money.
Mercer County Community College has repeatedly denied any association with Galarza and his team, saying they were approached by Galarza last year about the football program but declined to participate.

“Manuel Galarza is not an employee of Mercer County Community College,” college president Patricia Donohue wrote in a statement.

“Whatever association an MCCC student may have with this league, it is outside of college life.”

The college said it could not disclose how many of the players are enrolled in classes at the school.

Grocholski has had sporadic contact with Galarza, who has offered to wire money or return the equipment. Grocholski wants his money.

Grocholski tried to get local law enforcement to investigate, and he contacted an officer with the Milford Police Department.

“He just told me basically, ‘You got scammed,’” Grocholski said.

Galarza does not deny the appearance of impropriety.

“If I’m reading this from the outside, I’d say, ‘Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,’” he said.
But he does not feel pressure to deny he is scamming his players and their parents. “I don’t have to, I don’t have to tell you that,” he said.